Conventionally, some vehicles such as automobiles are equipped with a power sliding door apparatus (opening and closing apparatus), which opens and closes a door opening on a side with a door panel (an opening and closing body) slid by drive force, for example, of a motor. Such a power sliding door apparatus has an object detecting device for detecting an object caught between the edge of the door opening and the door panel. An object detecting device disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-292279 includes an elongated cable-like sensor body and an elongated tubular support member. The sensor body has an elongated hollow insulator that is elastically deformable. The hollow insulator has in it a plurality of sensing electrodes, which are connected in series via a resistor. Current is supplied to the sensing electrodes. The support member supports and fixes the sensor body to the front end of the door panel. The support member, which is formed of elastically deformable material, has an insertion hole extending along the longitudinal direction thereof. The support member extends along the front end of the door panel with the sensor body inserted into the insertion hole from one end of the support member in the longitudinal direction. When an object contacts the support member, the sensor body receives a pressing force via the support member, so that the hollow insulator is elastically deformed. Elastic deformation of the hollow insulator causes the sensing electrodes to contact and be short-circuited to each other, so that current supplied to the sensing electrodes flows from an electrode of a higher voltage to the other electrode of a lower voltage without flowing through the resistor. When the current of a constant voltage supplied to the sensing electrodes flows from the sensing electrode of the higher voltage to the sensing electrode of the lower voltage without flowing through the resistor, the current value changes. Therefore, based on the change in the current value, the object contacting the front end of the door panel is detected.
The support member disclosed in the above publication is tubular because of the insertion hole for receiving the sensor body. Since the insertion hole is formed to extend through the support member along the longitudinal direction, the hollow support member is difficult to manufacture and costly. Also, a process for inserting the elongated sensor body into the insertion hole formed in the elongated support member is not easy, and thus increases the manufacturing costs.